Act IV - The Newlywed

 

Everything in Creation is governed and bound by Laws;

Heaven and Hell are no exception.

In times when Demons refuse to comply,

When the actions of the rogues jeopardise the balance,

Hell sends their ancient and most dangerous spawn;

The Contractor…

Act IV – The Newlywed 

“I would like to thank you all for coming out here on my big day. As you all know, I’m not a big fan of marriage; I thought it was for suckers who wanted to lose half their shit! But in all seriousness, that old me died when I laid my eyes on a shy and beautiful waitress at the café around the corner; my new wife Chloe.

“Chloe, my darling love, I love you more than anyone could possibly love another human being; more than a flower loves the sun; Hell, I love you more than Uncle George loves cake!

“Chloe, fair and loving Chloe, from this day forth I give to you my heart, my mind and my soul for all eternity and beyond.

“As long as I draw breath, you will want for nothing…”

 It was late evening on the 13^th Fairway at the golf course in Jack’s Point just a bit west of Queenstown, New Zealand where a man was standing, hidden amongst the green next to the lake. The cool mountain air ruffled through his flowing, crimson-red trench coat and caused his cigarette to glow an angry red.

He pulled out an ebon pocket watch from the inside of his coat and stared at the ticking face, upon which two hands were ticking; the large, red hand ticked to a stop at 12 o’clock while the black hand was ticking backwards slowly from 5 o’clock.

He let out an impatient ‘tsk’ as he snapped the watch shut angrily and pocketed the timer.

Across the fairway, he could hear the final song of the birds around him as the horizon snuffed out the last remains of the sun.

The chorus of wildlife was suddenly interrupted by a group of men walking towards the 13^th fairway, winding up their last game.

‘… I’m really happy you guys made it there last week.’

‘What and miss out on my best mate making the biggest mistake of his life?’

‘Easy there Tim! He’s probably jealous that you found a hot wife and he’s still dating his laptop.’

‘Fuck off! I can find a girl like Chloe any day mate!’

‘Yeah, she’s ah… she’s a special lady fellas.’

‘Come on, are we gonna talk or are we gonna finish this birdie?’

The man in the crimson coat strained his ears as he heard a loud ‘thwack’ noise followed by a soft rolling sound in the grass ahead of him. He watched as he saw the pearlescent outline of a dimpled, ‘Callaway HEX’ golf ball came rolling towards his feet.

‘What the fuck was that mate? You hit it like a girl!’

‘That’s not what your sister said mate.’

‘Go on then, go grab your ball. Least you got one now that you’re married right?’

Jeering and cursing ensued as the cloaked man heard the footsteps of a stranger gently patter on the grass, becoming louder and louder until the dark outline of a man came closer to view.

‘You took your time, Jeff,’ said the cloaked man to the golfer as his face became clearer in the darkness, ‘now hand it over.’

The dark stranger stopped in his tracks. ‘Faust…’ He growled.

‘That’s right asshole. I’m here to enf-‘

Before he could finish his sentence, the stranger, Jeff, let out an unholy shriek filling the night air with his demonic howl as the crimson man, Faust, watched a jet of green smoke billow out of the man’s head.

The smoke cloud circled around Jeff before taking the form of a growling, sickly-green demon. Jeff’s limp body fell to the ground with a loud thud.

‘You were due back a while ago shitsack,’ Faust hissed angrily, ‘now hand it over!’

The demon stooped down to the unconscious form of Jeff the golfer and, with its decaying, scaly talons, reached into his chest cavity and painfully extracted a small, glowing, golden orb.

‘Good numbnuts,’ Faust remarked, ‘now give me his soul.’

The demon stared at Faust with its hollow, blackened eyes and sneered. ‘Non est casu!’ Rearing its ugly head, it opened its gaping maws and bit into the glowing human soul with its rotting, yellowed teeth.

Faust snarled at the demon as he heard the sound of glass shattering. Powerless to do anything, he watched as the demon was lifted into the air by a powerful and blinding light that illuminated the entire golf course.

The demon laughed an unholy cackle as giant horns sprouted on its foul, green head, elongated, festering wings protruded from its scaled back and sickened, razor sharp spikes emerged from its putrid talons.

No sooner had it metamorphosed did Faust have its neck clutched in his vice-like grip. ‘Big mistake asshole!’ He cursed as he choked the life out of the demon.

Without flinching, the demon let out a low, growling snicker before roaring into Faust’s snarling face. Without warning, the grass beneath Faust’s feet sprung to life and grew at an unholy speed before it towered over both the demon and Faust himself.

He watched in horrid shock and, before he could react, felt the grim feeling of razor sharp talons pierce his chest. Faust let go of the demon and fell onto the floor; through his blurring vision, he could see the demon land on the ground softly before bounding into the lush, thick forest of grass it had just made, laughing madly at its victory.

Its clawed feet hit the ground softly as it sprinted through the overgrowth of grass, leaving behind a brief rustling noise as evidence of its existence. It ran for kilometres on end through the thickened grove before it felt a painful collision to its face, knocking it flat on its back.

‘Abore ramus?’ It asked itself loudly.

But it was no tree branch; standing where its face was with a look of ice-cold hatred, was the firm, unshaking fist of Faust the Contractor.

The demon scrambled on the ground in fear, trying to get away from him, as Faust took ominous steps closer to it, cracking his knuckles menacingly. ‘For fuck’s sake,’ he shouted angrily, ‘how many of you sacks of shit do I have to kill before you learn not to fuck with me anymore?’

The demon cowardly scratched and clawed upon the ground, throwing clumps of engorged grass at Faust as it struggled to escape but the Contractor was already prepared; he opened his hands and threw them in front of him. It leapt through the mess of foliage as a large cluster of vine-like grass entangled around its neck, dragging it to the ground and binding it to the earth.

It let out a choked scream as Faust stood over its squirming body, his gleaming red eyes boring into its own black eyes.

‘Placere… non!’ It squealed with great effort.

‘Give… me… that… soul…’ Faust said slowly.

‘I non… potest.’

‘Yes you can! Cough it up you limey fuck!’ Faust lashed more and more strands of grass onto the demon, wrapping them around its limbs and wings. ‘So help me, I will tear every limp from your mangy body one by one. Now, hand it over!’

The demon shook its head in foolish defiance. Faust was unimpressed as he commanded the lashes of enlarged grass to pull; he had a satisfied look on his face as a loud tearing noise was heard followed by a pained screech from the demon.

It turned its ugly head and tried to nurse the smoking stub that was once one of its newly-grown wings.

‘GIVE IT TO ME!’

Again, it shook its head and Faust tore off the other wing as it writhed in agony on the ground. ‘Ob-obsecro ut mihi ignoscas!’

‘If you hand back that which you have stolen from me, I will try and stop myself from ripping your fucking head off!’

The demon, succumbing to the excruciating pain of being dismembered, nodded its head.

Its chest started heaving up and down as it made a low grumbling noise. Faust watched and smirked as with each heave, a yellow glow emitted from its chest that grew brighter and brighter before a small, golden orb emerged from the demons chest.

Faust quickly scooped up the sphere in his hands and stared at the demon cautiously, watching its horns and spiked talons detract, leaving behind the same cowering, diminutive demon that was seen before.

The lashed vines around its neck snapped free at Faust’s behest and the demon clambered to its feet. Faust glared at the cowering demon before him and, with a cold, menacing tone, spoke only one word; ‘go.’

There was a loud commotion around the 13^th fairway when Faust returned; paramedics and concerned patrons were surrounding Jeff who was sitting on the grass with a blanket around him. Next to him sat a young, attractive woman who had her hand clasped firmly onto his. He looked around the area gingerly and saw the tail of a crimson cloak rippling behind a tree.

Jeff excused himself from the swarms of concerned onlookers and discreetly slipped between the tree line, making sure that no one could see him. He found himself standing face to face with a man with blood-red eyes and a cigarette on his lips.

‘So that was interesting,’ Jeff giggled nervously, ‘demon leaving me for dead and everything.

Faust blew a large puff of smoke into his face and threw the cigarette onto the ground.

‘Did you… did you get my soul back?’

‘I did.’

‘Then our agreement?’

‘Our transaction will continue as stipulated in the contract you made with Asmodeus; 50 years, Jeff, as you agreed.’ Faust stated knowingly.

‘I guess you think it’s pretty shallow of me,’ Jeff continued, ‘asking that my wife not age for 50 years?’

‘I don’t think you’re shallow, I just think you’re a fucking idiot.’

‘There’s nothing nobler than selling my soul so that my darling wife can have her clock frozen for 50 years, Contractor,’ Jeff defended, feeling slightly braver, ‘I want her to outlive me.’

‘Bullshit,’ Faust spat, ‘you just wanna make sure you have a hot piece of ass when you’re old and mouldy and your cock can’t even rise to the occasion.’

‘It doesn’t matter; we both get something out of this.’

‘I hope you’ll still be saying that when you regret this decision after I leave.’ Faust returned bitterly.

Jeff’s face went blank. ‘What… what do you mean?’

‘You stupid fuckhead,’ Faust laughed, ‘what do you think makes you feel love and arousal in the first place, your cock?’

‘It’s… it’s my heart.’

‘Wrong asshole,’ Faust replied, pulling the small, golden orb from his pocket and waving it about in Jeff’s face, ‘it’s this here; your soul. Without it, your precious Chloe will start to look like Donald Trump.’

‘That’s not true; no matter what she looks like, I will always love her.’

‘Wrong again, asshole.’ Faust remarked.

‘Even without my soul, her beauty will always remain burned into my mind forever.’

‘It most certainly fucking won’t; it’ll be long forgotten, replaced by nothing but oblivion.’

‘That… that can’t be right; she’s my soul mate!’

Faust let out a loud, derisive laugh. ‘Your soul mate? You just gave up your soul, mate.’

‘You… you’re wrong!’ Jeff defended, shaking his head fervently.

‘Oh shit if only I got a dollar for every time I’ve had to prove someone wrong.’ Faust replied coldly. ‘I’d have made enough money to buy a nice mansion in Hell.’

Jeff opened his mouth to argue but was cut off by the voice of his wife, Chloe, coming closer and closer. ‘Jeff, Jeff honey? Oh there you are.’ His head pricked up in relief as he heard the sound of her footsteps on the grass until she came in view.

Faust stared at her vexingly as her face emerged from the shadows.

‘Baby, the whole club is wondering where you’ve run off to,’ she said, tugging on his sleeves, ‘they need you to fill out an incident report over what happened.’

Jeff nodded and, with one last cold stare at Faust, he walked back across the fairway. Faust listened to Jeff’s dwindling footsteps and turned to Chloe.

‘I’m sorry about interrupting your meeting with my husband, sir,’ she apologised politely, ‘it’s hard being married to someone whom everyone loves. Busy, busy boy he is.’ She let out a small girlish chuckle.

Faust’s eyes dissected Chloe as she went on about her marriage and her life; she had the look of someone clearly in her mid-twenties but spoke with the manner of someone much mature for her age.

As Faust scrutinised her very being, something at the back of his mind kept nagging him as though he had forgotten something a long time ago.

‘Anyway, listen to me… rambling on about my life,’ Chloe said, interrupting Faust from his thoughts, ‘how have you been Faust?’

At the mere utterance of his name, a sudden surge of long-forgotten memories came flooding back to him. He sneered at Chloe and with a mirthless glare, answered; ‘you look different, Cleo, I almost didn’t recognise you for the whore that you are.’

‘Well,’ she said without a care, ‘you know, I have to adapt to the times. Oh God, it’s been so long since anyone’s called me by my old name!’ She laughed aloud. ‘It makes me sound so… ancient.’

‘Well that’s what you fucking are.’ He hissed. ‘You know, with all the idiots you’ve tricked over the centuries to hand their souls over to Asmodeus, you’d make a better Contractor than me.’

‘I would, but the crimson trench coat doesn’t suit me darling.’ She laughed again in jest.

‘How is it that you have eluded my radar all these millennia, Cleopatra?’ He asked calmly.

She stared at her nails dispassionately. ‘Well Faust, this meeting here is only by some freak chance. I make it a point to stay underneath the gaze of demons. And furthermore,’ she glared at him venomously, ‘with the amount of souls I traffic through the Fiery Gates, I’m sure the Princes would not object to me slipping through the cracks.’

Faust temper was tried as he heard each condescending word leave her plump, red lips.

‘And besides,’ she continued, ‘there’s no harm in what I do; these men pledge their souls to me at marriage so I am only trading what is rightfully mine anyway.’

‘That’s not what you’re fucking doing and you know it!’ Faust snapped. ‘You’re upsetting the balance Cleo; human souls aren’t meant to be judged prematurely.’

She waved a finger in the air patronisingly at Faust. ‘Temper, temper darling. Human souls are just that; property of humans. It is up to us what we do with our souls and these men want me to have it to bargain and spend as I please.’

‘So you don’t care about the souls of the innocent men you’ve fucked into throwing them away?’

‘And why should I? They’ve made a choice, now they are committing to the consequences.’

‘They made a choice because you’ve tricked them into it you filthy slut!’

‘Well,’ she said trying to stifle an angry tick on her forehead, ‘I can see this conversation becoming unpleasant. I have friends to attend to, Faust, and you have a soul to deliver back to Asmodeus. So why don’t you run along like the good little hellhound you are and go fetch another soul.’ She turned and started walking back towards the fairway, smiling cruelly to herself.

Faust growled at her; never, in all the eons of his occupation, had he met anyone as infuriating as Cleopatra Philopator the Seventh. ‘I swear to all Creation Cleo,’ he shouted to her back, ‘one day I will come for you!’

He heard Cleopatra’s fading laughter as he punched the nearby tree angrily.

The Contractor turned around swiftly and with a sharp flick of his cloak, made his way across the outskirts of the golf course, trying in vain to take solace in the fact that he had successfully extracted a human soul without any damage.

And so ends the tale of the Newlywed… and the Contractor.